


Gift Exchange

by Numbers Than Words (Cammerel)



Category: The Tribe (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gift Exchange, Holidays, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 01:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5520299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cammerel/pseuds/Numbers%20Than%20Words
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Mallrats try to create some sort of winter holiday event. Drawing names from a hat, Jack just happens to get a certain someone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gift Exchange

After solving the ‘Zoot mystery’ (more or less), Jack spends practically the next two days holed up in his room. If he were being honest? He spent a lot of it sleeping. But if anyone asks, he’s been working on another project that he can’t talk about yet. The last thing they need to know is that he took a two day break. After the mess he’s been through since he found Gel, he figures he deserves that much at least.

Eventually, though, he has to get up and do something. He hasn’t been back long, but he knows there are tons of things in the mall that need to be set up, tweaked, or at least checked in on before he can feel completely comfortable in it again. So he begrudgingly leaves the room and heads up to the cafe.

“Late night?”

Jack looks up from where his head is resting on the table and narrows his brows at Gel, “Sure,” he says and yawns, rubbing his eyes as he tries to hone himself in.

“Maybe this’ll help,” Trudy suggests and Jack barely has time to look at her before he realizes she’s set a nice, steaming mug of coffee in front of him.

Jack groans when the smell of it hits him and he smiles slowly, “Yeah, that’s… thanks, Trudy,” he nods to her and puts his hands on the mug to warm them up, watching the sour expression on Gel’s face as Trudy sets down a mug of coffee in front of Amber as well, and then another for Salene.

“Want some sugar?” Gel asks him, smiling slyly as she starts to reach for it.

“Nah.”

“Cream then?” Gel presses, leaning over to him and winking, “Can’t have coffee at all without _cream_.”

“No thanks, Gel,” Jack responds again and smiles, trying to seem sincere, and not as annoyed as he really is, “I’m a plain kinda guy.”

“Tell me about it,” Sammy grumbles as he watches the exchange.

Mouse looks up from her bowl of cereal, staring at Salene before she asks: “Salene, how come we never celebrate Christmas?”

The question causes a few of the other Mallrats to look at her and Mouse sinks down in her seat when they do.

“We don’t really celebrate any holidays,” Salene muses aloud, smiling at Mouse and reaching out to pat her shoulder, “That was the adult way. Things have changed.”

“What’s there to celebrate, anyway?” May speaks up then, playing with her breakfast.

“Our survival?”

Jack smiles slightly at the comment offered from Trudy and he finally takes a sip of his coffee, “Some of us survived, at least.”

“Some of us,” Trudy agrees sadly, sitting beside him with Brady in her lap and giving him a sympathetic look.

“I want to celebrate Christmas,” Sammy mutters longingly, Amber and Jay watching him.

“Well we don’t really know what the date is, so it’s not exactly like it’ll be right - we’d be taking a stab in the dark,” Jack offers and the two kids deflate almost at once, “But I… I guess that doesn’t really matter so much. We could always do it whenever we wanted.”

Mouse looks up at him in surprise, her face lighting up, “Really?”

“Is this really the time to be thinking of celebrating something as stupid as Christmas?” May asks then and stands up, “It’s a stupid, wasted holiday, that was used as a ploy to sell toys and spoil stupid brats.”

Salene frowns when May leaves the cafe and she stands up, “May!” she looks back at the others, “I better go after her.”

“Why’s May so upset?” Mouse asks in confusion, “Does she hate Christmas?”

“She’s right, though,” Lex says as he butts into the conversation, “Christmas isn’t exactly practical, not in this world, at least.”

“It’s not impossible, either,” Siva defends the argument.

Amber clears her throat when the others start to get into a heated debate, “Hey, listen,” she starts, standing up, “Look, I know you all are fixated on this, but May and Lex are right. We need to be practical,” Lex starts to smile when Amber crosses her arms and looks at Jack, “Jack, if we were to do it, how would we even start to go about trying to celebrate something like this?”

Lex laughs and gets up, leaving the cafe, “Whatever it is, leave me out of it.”

“Nice to know we’re not short of a Grinch,” Jack jokes as Siva leaves as well.

A couple of the others chuckle.

“Well?” Amber presses.

Jack purses his lips, glancing at Trudy as she feeds Brady and he takes another sip of his coffee, “Secret Santa?” he offers, “Something like that so we don’t all feel obligated to get gifts for everyone, and something that can cover each person in the tribe without intentionally picking favorites.”

“How do we know who gets who?” Gel asks curiously.

“Well, we don’t, that’s the point of Secret Santa,” Jack says, shrugging, “We all put our names in a hat, everyone draws one - if you get yourself, we draw again. After that, you get your person a gift and put them… uh… traditionally under a tree. You’re not supposed to know until then who got who.”

“Sounds practical,” Amber responds, smiling at him, “What should we do about Lex and May?”

Trudy frowns thoughtfully, “Talk to them one-on-one? They shouldn’t have to do it if they don’t want to, but maybe if they know how we’re going about it, they might not mind so much. We all could use a little holiday cheer, for once.”

“Especially considering the last holiday we had was Patsy’s birthday?” Jack guesses and then the older members of the tribe go silent.

* * *

Jack sets down the hat and looks around at the others in the cafe. They managed to talk both Lex and May into doing it, though it wasn’t easy, but at least the whole tribe (as is) was able to agree to their first attempt at a real holiday celebration.

They agreed to call it ‘Mallrat Day’, because none of them could agree on a religious holiday due to most of their family backgrounds. And instead of it being called ‘Secret Santa’, they agreed to call it ‘Secret Gifter’.

Jack motions to each of their papers and the crayons at their tables, “Just write your name on it, fold the paper and put it in the hat. I’ll move them around and rustle them up, then we’ll each grab one. If you get your own name, we put them all back and do it again, understand? After that, we have seven days to pick something before gift exchange.”

After two tries, (the first with Lex getting his own name and the second with Jack getting his), they finally all manage to each get one of other people.

Jack feels his heart falter when he reads his, and it’s everything he can do not to glance at her, so he tucks it in his pocket and smiles around at them all, “Everyone get another person’s name?”

Amber makes a face and so does Mouse, Lex nearly bursts out into hysterical laughter before crumpling up his paper and leaving the cafe, but Trudy smiles widely and stands from her seat, tucking the flap of paper in her bright purple blouse before lifting up Brady, “Thanks for setting this all up, Jack,” she says, patting his shoulder as she walks by.

Jack watches after her, “Yeah, uh… I mean yeah, thanks. I-I-I mean ‘you’re welcome’.” He looks back at the others as they clear out of the cafe, then he walks off to his own room and finally takes the card out, looking down at the name on it.

“Damn.”

He and Trudy haven’t always been the closest. In fact, they’ve been at one another’s necks in the past - what with Dal (when he wanted to spend time with her), and then shortly after Jack found out about his death. Dal, really, has settled between them and kept them from being even remotely close to something that could be considered ‘distant acquaintances’. 

And while Jack’s heart has always been there for Ellie in the past, his feelings for her have certainly dwindled a lot lately. Not just because of everything that happened with her and Luke before he was captured by the Technos, but also because time _really **doesn’t**_ make the heart grow fonder. And the more time he’s around Trudy… he’s started feeling something really, really _unusual_ towards her.

She’s changed, he knows she has, but even then he feels like it might be something that’s more than that. More than acknowledging that she’s changed for the better, more than a fondness. What annoys him about it is that it’s not something he’s experienced before.

Jack’s never really had _many_ feelings towards women. He openly flirted with Amber the first time he saw her because she was attractive (not really because he was in love with her or anything), and he fell completely and utterly into it with Ellie the first time he saw **her** , but what’s happening with Trudy is creeping up on him, instead of hitting him smack in the face like it did the first time.

Trudy kind of snuck up on him. And since even now he’s in a bit of denial (or a lot of denial - a _lot_ of denial), he supposes she’s still sneaking.

“Thinkin’?”

Jack looks up from the bed and hurriedly tucks the paper into his pants pocket, “Oh, hey, Gel. I didn’t see you there.”

“That’s quite alright,” Gel says, moving over to sit by him and leaning into his shoulder, “So, tell me, what kind of things would you like for Christmas, Jack?”

Jack lifts a brow at how forward she’s being and he shifts slightly away from her, “Me?” he glances around at his work desk, and then at his computer, “You drew me from the hat?”

“No,” Gel pouts and glances him over, “But I still wanna give you somethin’.”

Jack furrows his brows, keeping his eyes downcast and flipping through the book he’s holding, hoping it’ll help him think of a good gift idea for Trudy, “Drawing the names was so that everyone only had to get one gift. And… we agreed on it not being Christmas, Gel.”

“Oh, that’s right, ‘Mallrat Day’, whatever,” Gel says dismissively, and then Jack feels her hand on his arm before she takes the book and tosses it away, “Jack, pay attention to me.”

Jack looks back at her when he feels her hand slide down to his leg, “What did you say?”

“Pay attention to me,” Gel repeats, her hand brushing the inside of his leg then and she smiles, blinking slowly at him, “What would you like?” she asks lowly, “I might… be able to give you something _nice_ , if you wanted.”

Jack feels his cheeks start to heat up when he finally realizes what she’s trying to say and he stands up abruptly, “Oh, uhm…” he pinches the bridge of his nose, “I just remembered, a uh… there’s something I-something I need to do…” he doesn’t even look back as he leaves the room, practically jogging as he walks away from Gel.

* * *

Never ever in Jack’s life has he ever had to buy someone a gift for the holidays. Before the virus, his older brothers would spoil him rotten, but he was much too young to really get to the point where he could put a lot of thought into giving back.

That said, it doesn’t take long for him to decide on what he wants to make for Trudy (yes, **make** ). He spends a lot of the next few days out of the mall, gathering things he’ll need, hunting through lots of junkyards. The hardest part isn’t actually designing what to make, but making it with correct contents.

He almost doesn’t make it in time, in between everything else he’s expected to do throughout the day, being harassed constantly by Gel, and trying to not be so obvious about it, Jack hardly has any time to actually work on the gift. And when it comes to the day of the gift exchange, he’s only just **finally** putting everything together for it. It’ll look simple from the outside, but he put thought into it, and that’s what really matters.

Jack looks up when he hears footsteps coming towards the room and he hurriedly hides everything under his jacket, but then he relaxes when it’s Lex, “Oh, hey, what’s up?”

Lex glances at Jack’s hands and then back to him, “Everyone’s waiting up in the cafe, are you coming?”

“In a bit.”

“You designed this thing, now you’re holding everyone up?”

“I’ll be there in a bit,” Jack stresses the words and then watches in amusement at how strange Lex starts acting, reaching up to scratch his temple, then waffling around the room for nearly a minute before finally leaving.

Jack finishes up as quickly as he can, stuffing the batteries into the bottom compartment and checking it quickly to make sure everything works correctly before putting the screws in and closing it all up. He gets up, tossing his jacket onto the bed and making his way to the cafe.

“About time,” Gel says and pulls out the seat beside her, patting it for him and winking.

Jack side steps her table though and moves over to where all the gifts are, setting down his and then turning back to them, “Okay, who wants to go first?”

Mouse raises her hand quickly, running up and grabbing hers, then taking it over to Gel and setting it down.

They go through a few others, Siva got Sammy, Trudy got Amber, Jay got Siva, May got Jay (which was a really, really awkward exchange), and Sammy got May. Amber goes next, and it makes sense why she made the face she did when she read her card, when they all realize she drew Lex (of all people).

Lex, surprisingly, seems delighted when she offers him the suave black fedora and he puts it on his head, tilting it down and standing up. He walks over to the table, picks up his gift - a heavy, smallish orange bag - and offers it to Jack, “Yeah, that’s right,” he says when others gasp, “I got you, you nerd.”

Jack lifts a brow and looks at the bag, “There’s a lock on it.”

“It’s already on the right numbers,” Lex says dismissively, turning to leave the cafe.

Jack tentatively unlocks it and opens the bag, but then his jaw nearly drops to the floor, “L-L-Lex? Lex? … Lex?” he barely manages out any more as he looks up in surprise.

“I’ve been in bed with women that have said my name less than that,” Lex responds, “Say it again, and you’re gonna have to at least take me out to dinner.”

“But-”

“Shut up, nerd,” Lex says gruffly as he tilts his cap, “And uh, keep quiet about it.”

 _No kidding_ , Jack watches Lex leave the cafe and then looks back down to the shiny tools in the bag before closing it and clearing his throat, “Okay, uh… who wants to go next?”

Amber makes a motion with her shoulder, “Just one left, **Jack**.”

Everyone looks at Jack curiously and Trudy’s face pales a little in recognition.

“Oh, oh, right,” Jack flounders and weakly reaches back for his, then looks at Trudy and the two meet eyes. He moves over to her, “Uh… uh, Mouse, can… can you turn out the light?”

“Why?” Mouse asks in confusion.

Jack looks at her then, feeling a sheet of sweat starting to build along his hairline, “Just do it, would you, Mouse?”

Mouse straightens up and then hops out of her seat, turning off the light for him.

Jack smiles nervously at Trudy, and then to Brady in her arms before setting the cylinder object on the table.

“What is it?” Trudy asks curiously, but she smiles nevertheless.

“Looks like a holey can of Pringles to me,” Gel huffs and crosses her arms, glaring at Trudy.

The others chuckle, but Jack keeps his eyes on Trudy and then flicks the switch at the bottom of the cylinder container, watching Brady’s face light up in wonder and Trudy gasps.

“Wooooow,” Mouse says in awe, looking up at the ceiling, “Wow, wow, wow.”

“It’s magic,” Sammy and Gel say nearly at the same time.

“Hercules,” Amber reaches out then to the stars just above Mouse, “And Ursa Minor. Jack, this is amazing.”

“I thought Hercules was a Disney movie.”

Gel huffs at the comment, “It was a tv show first, with a complete hunk playing Hercules.”

“And for my next trick,” Jack reaches up and twists the top, the names suddenly appearing by each constellation. As the others around them start pointing them out, he continues to stare at the look of wonder on Trudy’s face, and then realization as she looks back at him and smiles widely.

After a few minutes, Trudy reaches out and turns it off, “Thank you, Jack,” she says softly, standing up from her seat and leaning in to kiss him.

It’s probably quick, but for Jack it lasts a lifetime.

He isn’t sure if she means to kiss him on the cheek only, but part of the corner of her lips meets his and his heart flutters violently, stealing his breath. He smiles sheepishly when she pulls back and waves like an idiot, “No, no, no, it’s-it’s n-no problem, Tr-Tr-Trudy.”

Trudy lifts her brows at him and reaches down to take the star projector, leaving the cafe finally.

Jack takes up the tool bag and goes back to his room. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t check the mirror, see the purple lipstick between his mouth and his markings, then slowly lay back on the bed and stare at the ceiling for at least thirty minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more, request Tribe shorts on Tumblr @ NumbersThanWords.


End file.
